Adnan Al-Dulaimi is seen after being elected first deputy speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives during the legislature's first session in Baghdad, December 29, 2025.
Sadiqoun lawmaker elected first deputy speaker as parliament delays Kurdish deputy vote
BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers on Monday elected Adnan Fayhan al-Dulaimi of the Sadiqoun bloc as first deputy speaker of parliament, while a separate vote for the second deputy speaker, a post typically held by a Kurdish lawmaker, ended without a winner after two rounds.
Al-Dulaimi won 177 votes, defeating former acting speaker Mohsen al-Mandalawi, who received 107, during the first session of the Council of Representatives’ sixth term.
Al-Dulaimi, born in 1973 in Babil, currently serves as Babil governor and previously led the Sadiqoun bloc in the fifth parliamentary term. Before entering parliament, he headed the political office of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq. The Sadiqoun bloc is linked to Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq, a Shia Islamist political and paramilitary movement.
Parliament on Monday also elected Haibat al-Halbousi as speaker. Al-Halbousi, a senior figure in the Taqaddum Alliance, won with 208 votes. Salim al-Issawi received 66 votes and Amer Abduljabbar received 9, while 26 ballots were declared invalid, results announced in the chamber showed.
Lawmakers have not yet elected a second deputy speaker, leaving the position vacant after two rounds of voting failed to produce the required majority. Two Kurdish candidates are competing for the post: Shakhawan Abdullah of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, who held the role in the previous term, and Rebwar Karim of the opposition National Stance Movement led by Ali Hama Salih.
It was expected to be a coronation for Shakhawan Abdullah.
In the first round, Karim won 153 votes and Abdullah received 119. After a recess, the second round saw Karim’s total rise to 156 while Abdullah’s fell to 102, still short of the threshold. A third round is expected Tuesday with Karim needing another increase of ten votes.
The KDP, which holds 27 seats and is the largest Kurdish party, has described the position as its entitlement based on electoral strength. Despite representing a party with five seats and limited alliances in Baghdad, Karim secured more than 150 votes in both rounds, a result seen by some lawmakers as reflecting wider political alignments and tensions between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, particularly over the presidency.
Hours before the vote, KDP leader Masoud Barzani called for a new mechanism to select a nominee for Iraq’s president, saying the candidate does not necessarily have to come from either the KDP or the PUK, even though the post has been held by the PUK since 2003.
The KDP in Baghdad has warned it may take strong steps, including reconsidering its participation in the political process, if its candidate for second deputy speaker is not elected.